title: Calorie-protein deficiencies and the immune response of the chicken I. Humoral immunity.
abstract: How dependent is the chicken on the calorie (C) and amino acid (AA) levels of the diet? This question was addressed by formulating diets that were two-thirds deficient in C and AA. Feeding the one-third C-one-third AA, one-third C and one-third AA diets for 5 weeks, in general reduced the primary response to 5% sheep red blood cells (SRBC) but not to .5% SRBC. The C/AA deficient birds were returned to a basal diet at 5 weeks and three weeks later reimmunized with SRBC. The secondary response, immunoglobulin G (IgG) titer, of the latter birds after 3 weeks on a basal diet was significantly lower than controls. Total serum protein was significantly depressed during the feeding of one-third AA diet. Transferrin, IgG, and IgM were not affected while albumin was significantly reduced. Gain in body weight was reduced in all groups receiving the C/AA deficient diets. Three weeks after repletion, all groups gained equally.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000917:Antibody Formation; D002645:Chickens / Q000276:immunology*; D011200:Poultry; D011201:Poultry Diseases / Q000276:immunology*; D011502:Protein-Energy Malnutrition / Q000276:immunology / Q000662:veterinary*